High SMAS Face and Neck Lift
A High SMAS Face and Neck Lift is offered by Dr Jack Zoumaras in Sydney. Trained and inspired by Dr Timothy Marten in San Francisco a High SMAS Face and Neck Lift is a cutting edge technique to meet your goals of a Meloplasty.
Not many Surgeons in Australia offer this specific technique (factual).
A High SMAS Facelift will lift the lower eyelid, cheek, nasolabial folds, mid face, jowl and neck. It is indicated for lower eyelid hollowing, deep naso labial folds, jowls, and neck laxity.
Video: Preparing for a Facelift
Learn about the types of facelift procedures Dr Jack Zoumaras offers and why patients commonly consider a facelift. *Level V Evidence: How you will feel after plastic surgery varies between individuals depending on psychological and physical factors, our internal research is based on how patients in our practice feel after surgery. This research is pending publication-details to follow.
Adult Content: Patients have given permission. The following patients of Artiste Plastic Surgery are representative only and do not guarantee that you will have the same result.
Why High SMAS
A modern facelift, lifts the deep layer of the face (layer 3-see below) to reposition the cheeks, mid face and jowls. A High SMAS Facelift goes further by lifting the deep layer of the face (SMAS) at its highest possible position in line with the orbital rim and all the way down to include the neck laterally and centrally. This flap lifts the entire face and neck.
A High SMAS Facelift is more involved than traditional SMAS techniques because it lifts the entire face from the lower eye and the neck in one flap by its design and vector of elevation.
Why Dr Zoumaras technique is different
Dr Jack Zoumaras is 2017 and 2019 peer reviewed Vogue Face Surgeon and his practice is only Face. He has been trained by world leaders from San Francisco, New York and Paris. Training with the best to become a leader in Facelift surgery in Australia. He is current chairman of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons NSW Chapter and a specialist Plastic surgeon. He is peer reviewed, an educator, author and holds a fellowship program to train junior plastic surgeons in facelift techniques. He is one of only a few plastic surgeons (factual) to offer a High SMAS Facelift and Deep Plane Facelift.
The inspiration for Dr. Jack Zoumaras is to be the best facelift surgeon he can be. This means constant self reflection and critique and higher learning. This ensures that every aspect of the technique from the injection of the local anaesthetic, background classical music, positioning of the patient, careful planning of the incision ensures a consistent outcome for patients.
A Facelift is not meant to be a fast operation, it is an operation that takes time (minimum 3-4 hours and up to 6-7 hours) when executed with attention to detail and careful planning.
The use of micro fat grafting with 24K is our secret in Facelifts. Fat grafting will not only augment facial volume it provides a stem cell matrix to the skin. This nourishes the skin and has your skin looking firmer with fewer blemishes. It ensures your facelift looks after your skin also.
Placement of the incision behind the tragus of the ear, along the hairline in the temple, behind the ear and along the posterior hair line ensures an minimally visible scar.
Further attention by placing the incision along the hair follicles at a bevelled 45 degree angle ensures hair will grow around camouflaging the incision.
There will be scarring but not be visible easily.
By lifting the SMAS under the muscle and releasing the ligmanets the tension is placed deep. The excess skin is simply removed with no tension and the direction of muscle pull is vertical and not horizontal. This eliminates any wind blown affect or “pull” affect.
A lip lift will augment the upper lip, shorten the distance from the lip to nose and of course lift the lip. It involves removing skin and lifting the SMAS of the lip from just beneath the nose with the incision at the base of the nose.
A chemical peel is included with your facelift for skin blemishes and fine lines. A peel is done on areas not lifted such as the lower eyelid, nose and forehead. Dermabrasion is used around the mouth for vertical rhytids/deep wrinkles to smooth this region. The combination of a chemical peel and dermabraison ensures a total approach to the face.
Dr Jack Zoumaras with Dr Timothy Marten in San Francisco.
THE ANATOMY OF AGEING
To understand how best to lift the face, one must have a deep and thorough understanding of Facial Anatomy, and the anatomy of facial ageing. This ensures that your facelift result will not be “plastic”, but natural (anatomically lifted), and not obvious (surgical). World-Trained Facelift Surgeon, Dr Jack Zoumaras, is a peer reviewed Plastic Surgeon, and is experienced and qualified to understand your anatomy and respect your unique facial appearance.
Facial Anatomy
- Layer 1 is Skin which is thickest around the cheek and nose, and thinnest on the eyelids and temple.
- Layer 2 is Fat which is prominent around the cheeks and negligible in the eyelids (the fatty “bags” that we see under the eyelids comes from a deeper layer (deeper even than Layer 5).
- Layer 3 is the Superficial Musculoaponeurotic System (SMAS), a muscle layer that allows us to be humans, it is responsible for allowing us to talk, smile, whistle, sing, open and close our eyes, and for all facial animations.
- Layer 4 is a space that contains Ligaments, Facial nerves and Vessels. The ligament holds the upper three layers and rests on Layer 5. The ligament is at its thickest in Layer 4 and branches into the dermis of the skin, akin to fine branches of a tree.
- Layer 5 is bone where the ligament holding up the facial anatomy resides on (Cheek and Jaw bones). In the cheek and neck there is no bone and it is deep fascia that is representative of layer 5.
The Ageing Face
A High SMAS Face and Neck Lift lifts layers 1-2 in a single flap. The SMAS layer (3) is then designed High and lifted deep to the muscle, like a deep plane, from the lower eyelid to the neck. This will correct the jowls, nasolabial folds and eyelid hollowing and lift the neck.
Descent of the facial retaining ligaments can be addresed with a facelift.
PROCEdURE SNAPSHOT
5 hr procedure
1 night in hospital
2 weeks unsociable
Qualified facelift plastic surgeon:
- World-trained Dr Jack Zoumaras
- Qualified Anaesthetist, Accredited hospital
Results: Firmer skin, lifted jowls, rejuvenated neck.
Investment in yourself
Facelift surgery risks include bleeding, nerve weakness, scarring and more
You will feel:
Model featured in photography
FAQs
Dermabrasion works by providing a physical abrasive force through a diamond burr to cause controlled injury to the skin. The skin responds by healing with laying down of new collagen (collagenesis) that results in firmer skin and fewer skin blemishes.
A chemical peel causes a controlled chemical injury to the skin. This then promotes the skin cells and collagen to re-model during healing which helps with blemishes, skin tone and fine wrinkles.
A chemical peel is added with a Facelift to treat the skin.
All procedures have risks. We can assure you as a specialist Plastic Surgeon Dr Jack Zoumaras will go through all the possible risks. Your procedure will be done in an accredited hospital and with an accredited anaesthetist and you will stay overnight. Any issues that may arise, although rare, can be managed with by Dr Jack Zoumaras. Overall a Facelift is safe and carries risks that are between 1-4% (based on 10 years of self audit).
A facelift will last between 7-15 years depending on the type of lift you have and how you look after your skin and health. The reason why it does not last forever is because you will still age after the surgery.
A modern facelift lifts the anatomical changes that have occured to the ligament, muscle, fat and skin (Layers 1-4). You will have fewer rhtyids or wrinkles and the jowl and lower eyelid hollowing and rhtyids in the neck will be less. The changes are anatomical and will not look pulled.
A facelift by Face Specialist Plastic Surgeon Dr Jack Zoumaras will not make you look fake. Having a deep understanding of the anatomy of the ageing process through experience and training (over 10 years) will ensure you will not have a “pulled” look or “windswept” look. Part of the reason is because the muscle and ligaments are lifted and skin is used as a covering and it is not stretched.
A Facelift will feel tight, but is not a painful procedure. Your comfort levels will be monitored for the first 24 -72 hours after surgery and once you are home, it is expected that simple paracetamol will be enough to manage your comfort levels.
This depends on what type of work that you do.
It is advised that you can return at the earliest at 14 days. Most of our patients take between 3-4 weeks off work to ensure all evidence of Plastic Surgery can be hidden. That being said we have had some patients who are self employed, and have returned to work after 10 days.
You can wear makeup on your face once the sutures come out and the wound is healed (between 7-10 days).
Your hair will be washed immediately after your Facelift. Following this we encourage you to wash your hair on Day 3. Most of our patients prefer to wait until Day 5 when the drains are removed.
Following your surgery, the use of surgical drains for the first 5 days will ensure bruising is minimised. For the first week we use our LED light multiple times to improve blood flow to your face and expedite the healing. We recommend the avoidance of alcohol at least 2 weeks prior to surgery, low salt diet and diet high in fibre and green leafy vegetables.
During the surgery a no touch bi manual retraction technique is used to minimise dermal bruising on the skin.
Bruising is expected for the first 7 days. In fact most bruising will begin to appear after Day 2 and peak at Day 5. The bruising will begin to settle significantly over the next 10 days. You will still have residual bruising between week 2 and 3.
After 7 days you can go out for a walk and then lightly jog after 2 weeks. Between 2-6 weeks, light activity can be undertaken on an individual basis. It is expected that you can return to normal physical activity after 8 weeks.
You go for short walks after 7 days followed by jogging at 2-3 weeks. By 4 weeks you can do light physical activity. It is expected that you can resume normal gym activity at two months.
The immediate downtime for a Facelift is 10 days, and it is expected that you can take up to 3-4 weeks to recover. Many of our patients take one month off before returning to work or social activities. Each individual varies and we have had patients fly internationally and return to work after 10 days.
A Facelift is a procedure that requires a one night stay in the hospital. You will then be asked to rest at home and attend our clinic over the next 10-14 days to attend to dressings and receive LED light treatment (to aid in healing). The downtime is up to 4 weeks.
Dr Jack Zoumaras has dedicated his Plastic Surgery profession to surgery on the Face as this was his area of interest since the start of his internship as a doctor. Further to this he has been inspired through his work in the best facelift centres around the world from San Francisco to New York and Paris, where he learned from the best. Dr Jack Zoumaras has been invited by his peers to teach on Facelift anatomy and to present to other Plastic Surgeons on the international stage. Dr Jack Zoumaras is a peer reviewed Facelift surgeon, educator and author on Facelift surgery.
Yes. A Facelift will lift the anatomical jowls and this will indirectly improve the jawline as the two are associated. Lifting of the facial skin will also affect the lateral neck-line skin in the neck. So the answer is yes it will lift the neck, but cannot lift it to the same extent as a neck lift would.
The anatomy of the ageing face applies to the neck as the layers are continuous. A neck lift is complementary to a facelift but it does not need to be done at the same time. This is a personal choice based on the outcome you want and the financial investment you want to make. From an operative point of view it will take an additional 90 minutes and you will have a slightly longer incision. Our recommendation is to perform a Face and Neck Lift at the same time (Meloplasty and Platysmaplasty).
A traditional Facelift lifts the muscle (SMAS) in order to correct facial ageing changes, such as anatomical jowling and marionette lines. This SMAS lift occurs at the cheek level.
The High SMAS facelift lifts the muscle higher than the anatomical cheek. The High SMAS Facelift is designed to lift the SMAS as high as the orbital rim (Lower Eyelid area) and detaches the underlying ligaments to lift the lower eyelid, mid face, cheek, jowl and neck area. A High SMAS is an advanced facelift technique that is offered by Dr Jack Zoumaras (Trained and experienced in this technique on fellwoship in the USA and through 10 years plus of surgical experience).
The SMAS is the superficial muscolo-aponeurtoic system of the face (Layer 3).
The SMAS is responsible for all facial expressions, animations and functions such as opening and closing the eye and mouth. The SMAS is suspended to the underlying bone with facial ligaments and when these structures weaken and fall, you get signs of ageing such as lower eyelid hollowing and jowls.
A PonyTail Facelift is a cutting edge procedure offered by Dr Jack Zoumaras at Artiste Plastic Surgery. A PonyTail facelift will lift your eyebrow, eyelid area and upper cheek to seek a certain look. Through radial incisions in the hairline; the brow, upper eyelid and cheek are lifted. In much the same way that you place your hair in a PonyTail and lift the upper part of the face a Pony Tail lift will do this on a permanent basis. The Pony Tail lift is suitable for patients between the ages of 25 to 45.
Everybody would love to know the cost of a Facelift before embarking on the surgery but this is difficult much like it is to get a quote on renovating your kitchen without a builder or designer measuring the dimensions of your kitchen and then asking what appliances and materials that you would like. For a Facelift the many variables include assessment of cheek, neck area, jowls, naso-labial fold, eye area and brow. This assessment is then combined with what you want done with your face and what are the areas that you most to treat.
Dr Jack Zoumaras is a Specialist Plastic Surgeon, and a peer reviewed facelift surgeon. He has trained internationally, in New York and Paris, by Facelift surgeons in the world. Having technical understanding of the anatomy of the ageing process, takes years of training and experience, and it is this, combined with Surgical expereince.
Dr Jack Zoumaras offers three options for your face. The guideline investment for a facelift varies between $32-50k for the surgical fee alone. Hospital and anaesthetic fees are in addition.
A PonyTail Facelift starts from around $20k.
It is common for patients to combine other treatments and surgeries with facelift surgery to work on other areas of the face that cannot be achieved through a facelift alone. Commonly combined procedures include a neck lift, blepharoplasty, brow lift, skin peels, and/or dermabrasion.
Not all patients have volume loss in the cheeks; some have more fat deposits in layer 2 and layer 4/5. Buccal fat removal can be done to remove the fat in layer 4/5. Through lifting the muscle (Layer 3) a facelift will narrow the lower face.
Dr Zoumaras has specialised facelift training. His education, technique, and experience of over 10 years as a specialist plastic surgeon in Facelift surgery. Dr Zoumaras devotes a whole day’s operating to your face. This includes lifting the changes that occur during the aging process (retaining ligament descent). This is generally accepted worldwide to produce results that don't look like you have had surgery.
Any patients with visible signs of anatomical aging such as rhytids or wrinkles, ptotic skin, jowls or volume loss are good candidates. This usually begins around 40 years of age and becomes more common among patients that are 50 or 60 years old.
All facelift surgeries are performed with the patient under general anesthesia.
